"'Pill Incident' Sungwon Jeong, CEO of ESTsoft, Announces Comprehensive Review of Existing Tests and Releases"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] Jung Sang-won, CEO of Eastsoft, the parent company of East Security, apologized for the Alyac incident and announced that the product's testing and release processes will be thoroughly reviewed.

On the 31st, CEO Jung posted on his Facebook, "We apologize for the inconvenience caused to many Alyac users due to the ransomware detection function error on Alyac yesterday (30th)," and conveyed this message.

He said, "Since Alyac can significantly affect the PC environment of domestic users, an automated build, testing, and release process to verify stability before launch has been established, but this error was not detected," adding, "Taking this incident as an opportunity, we will comprehensively review the existing testing and release processes to ensure a more stable service."

This comprehensive review policy by CEO Jung appears to be due to users' suspicions about the essential verification process that confirms whether the update can be properly applied before Alyac updates are distributed.

The previous day, the latest Alyac with an enhanced ransomware detection function caused an error by mistaking legitimate programs for ransomware and sending alert messages. It misidentified basic processes installed on the Windows operating system (OS) as malware. The messages mentioned programs with various names such as 'WerFault.exe,' stating that an attack on the PC was attempted but Alyac blocked these suspected ransomware activities.

Following this, a notice was issued asking users to update Alyac to the latest version and run a scan, but some users who updated experienced their Windows systems becoming unresponsive, rendering their PCs unusable.

Currently, East Security is providing two manual recovery methods for Alyac antivirus users experiencing PC freezing issues. Users who can download the manual recovery tool should download and run the file immediately. Those who cannot must follow three steps: ▲ attempt forced PC reboot three times to enter safe mode ▲ download and run the manual recovery tool ▲ reboot. If these methods do not resolve the issue, users can request assistance by emailing East Security's customer support center.

Although CEO Jung and East Security issued an apology, complaints from Alyac users have not subsided. Various communities continue to post messages such as "I will never install Alyac again," and some users are even threatening collective lawsuits.

It is expected to be difficult for affected users to receive compensation. This is because it is not easy to accurately prove the amount of damage when problems occur while using a personal PC for work, and the error occurred in the publicly available free version. Typically, free versions of software include corporate exemption clauses in their terms of use, and victims must prove that this error does not fall under such exemptions.

Moreover, the corporate version of Alyac did not cause the same error as the personal version. If a company employee did not use the corporate product, it would be difficult to demand compensation for work-related damages. East Security has recommended corporate users to use the genuine corporate version.

However, this incident is expected to deal a significant blow to Alyac's reliability. Alyac is a leading domestic antivirus program with as many as 16 million users. It showed high usage rates, ranking first in the overall download rankings provided by Naver Software in January last year. In May, it selected KB Securities as the lead underwriter and is preparing for an initial public offering (IPO). Some predict that this incident could affect not only performance but also the IPO.